Monthly Archives: August 2011

COMMENTS: The Yankees show no signs of slowing down, but if Boston can keep posting winning weeks that might be enough to hold on to the AL East…Detroit posted a 6-1 record and sliced the Cleveland lead to a game and a half; KC and Seattle were the spoilers for the Tribe and the heroes for the Tigers. The Twins and Rays were unable to help out the Indians…KC and Seattle are a cominbed +16 WOR, MN and TB are a combined -30.5…Milwaukee has faded a bit in the ASFBL, but their 5-1 record showed they can still be dangerous…The Dodgers did it again, putting up another 5 win week…Texas went 5-2, and look like they have command in the AL West…Boston is +8.5 WOR, but what’s really impressive is that the actual team has 82 wins…

FEATS AND FAILURES:

Ezequiel Carrera of CLE had 5 hits against SEA on 8/22/2011
Mike Carp of SEA struck out 6 times against CLE on 8/22/2011
Austin Jackson of DET struck out 5 times against TBR on 8/23/2011
Zack Greinke of MIL had 11 strikeouts against PIT on 8/24/2011
Matt Moore of HOU had 15 strikeouts against COL on 8/24/2011
Chris Iannetta of COL struck out 4 times against HOU on 8/24/2011
Wily Mo Pena of ARI hit 3 home runs against WAS on 8/24/2011
Wily Mo Pena of ARI had 5 hits against WAS on 8/24/2011
David Price of NYY had 11 strikeouts against OAK on 8/25/2011
J.J. Hardy of BAL struck out 4 times against MIN on 8/25/2011
Alex Gordon of KCR had 5 hits against TOR on 8/25/2011
Allen Craig of STL robbed 3 hits against PIT on 8/27/2011
Tyler Flowers of TBR struck out 4 times against TOR on 8/28/2011
Josh Beckett of MIL had 11 strikeouts against CHC on 8/28/2011
Michael Young of TEX robbed 3 hits against LAA on 8/28/2011

COMMENTS: The Yankee tear continued, with a 6-1 week, shaving the Bosox lead to single digits…not that the Bosox are any slouches, with the best record in the league and a +9.5 WOR…Detroit inched closer in the AL Central, and Cleveland’s +6 WOR is making the difference in the division so far…Houston and St. Louis tied in their spring, each going 5-1….Houston is now +35 WOR and has a real chance at the all-time record…Not saying die, and responding better to Ballingall than McCourt, the Dodgers had the best record in the division and second-best in the NL…The actual Seattle team is so bad a divisional run probably was too much to ask, but at +10 they are 3rd in the WOR standings…Jose Bautista of Florida has 43 HR, with Berkman of St. Louis only 3 behind…Bautista is also hitting .318…3 of the 4 best batting averages in the ASFBL belong to fantasy Bosox…

WAIVER TRADE: The Tigers are trading Chad Durbin RP For the Philly Timo Perez. If any owner wants to claim any players involved in the trade, email the claim to me and Leo. The owners can withdraw the players at that time. If no claim is made before the stat upload next week, we’ll transfer the players.

FEATS AND FAILURES:

Jeff Niemann of HOU had 11 strikeouts against CHC on 8/15/2011
Paul Konerko of SFG had 5 hits against ATL on 8/16/2011
Pablo Sandoval of HOU had 6 RBI against CHC on 8/16/2011
Will Venable of SDP struck out 4 times against NYM on 8/17/2011
Chris Young of ARI struck out 5 times against PHI on 8/18/2011
Torii Hunter of LAA robbed 3 hits against TEX on 8/18/2011
Justin Verlander of DET had 10 strikeouts against CLE on 8/19/2011
Endy Chavez of TBR robbed 3 hits against SEA on 8/19/2011
Todd Doolittle of FLA had 10 strikeouts against SDP on 8/20/2011
Andy Tracy of ARI struck out 4 times against ATL on 8/21/2011
Robinson Cano of NYY hit 3 home runs against MIN on 8/21/2011
Chris Schwinden of LAA had 10 strikeouts against BAL on 8/21/2011
Chris Carpenter of STL struck out 4 times against CHC on 8/21/2011

COMMENTS: The Yankees and Bosox combined to go 12-0 last week…That makes the Yanks 11-1 in their last 12…Cleveland’s 5-1 record was huge…KC and SD are probably out of their divisional races, but each went 5-2 and could be dangerous spoilers…Texas is up 11 in the AL west, although the Angels have a 4-game series against them coming up…Take away Boston’s +9 WOR and the AL east would be a dead heat…Tim Lincecum allowed more walks (9) than hits (8) in his 2 starts this week…

CLARIFICATION: We will be going with 2 wildcard teams this year, although last week’s post implied differently.

FEATS AND FAILURES…more than usual this week:

Nelson Cruz of TEX had 6 RBI against SEA on 8/8/2011
Sean Henn of TOR had 13 strikeouts against OAK on 8/9/2011
Chris Johnson of OAK struck out 4 times against TOR on 8/9/2011
Jose Altuve of MIL struck out 4 times against STL on 8/10/2011
Jeff Niemann of HOU struck out 4 times against ARI on 8/10/2011
Troy Tulowitzki of COL robbed 3 hits against CIN on 8/11/2011
David Huff of CLE had 20 strikeouts against DET on 8/11/2011
Alex Avila of DET struck out 4 times against CLE on 8/11/2011
David Freese of DET struck out 4 times against CLE on 8/11/2011
Corey Hart of MIL had 6 RBI against STL on 8/11/2011
Robinson Cano of NYY had 6 RBI against TBR on 8/12/2011
Tyler Flowers of TBR struck out 4 times against NYY on 8/12/2011
Jonathan Lucroy of MIL had 5 hits against PIT on 8/12/2011
Jose Altuve of MIL had 5 hits against PIT on 8/12/2011
Garrett Jones of PIT struck out 5 times against MIL on 8/12/2011
Mark Trumbo of LAA struck out 5 times against TOR on 8/13/2011
Shane Victorino of NYY had 6 RBI against TBR on 8/13/2011
Ryan Howard of CWS hit 3 home runs against KCR on 8/13/2011
Adrian Gonzalez of BOS had 5 hits against SEA on 8/13/2011
Jason Kipnis of CLE struck out 4 times against MIN on 8/14/2011
Geovany Soto of CHC struck out 4 times against ATL on 8/14/2011
Zack Greinke of MIL had 10 strikeouts against PIT on 8/14/2011
Yohan Flande of COL struck out 4 times against STL on 8/14/2011

COMMENTS: No team did better than 5-2 this week…No division leader posted a losing record, and nobody gained or lost more than 1 game…In the weird stat of the week, no 3rd place team posted a losing record either…In fact, 3 3rd place teams had winning records, and 3 3rd place teams were 3-3…which was good news for Cleveland, who added a game in the most competitive AL division…The NL central is the tightest race in the league, with Houston and St. Louis trading punches…St. Louis gained a half game this week…Colorado is going to battle the 2nd place team in that fight for the wildcard spot…Anaheim and the Yankees are currently the leading contenders for the AL wildcard, which is especially interesting because each are kind of longshots to take their divisions…

Make sure you check out the players of the week off the stats page.

FEATS AND FAILURES:

Josh Reddick of BOS had 5 hits against CLE on 8/1/2011
Mitch Maier of CWS struck out 4 times against NYY on 8/1/2011
Brandon Beachy of ATL had 11 strikeouts against WAS on 8/2/2011
Matt Cain of HOU had 12 strikeouts against CIN on 8/2/2011
Cameron Maybin of COL struck out 4 times against PHI on 8/3/2011
Starlin Castro of CHC had 5 hits against PIT on 8/3/2011
Chris Aguila of FLA struck out 4 times against NYM on 8/3/2011
Trent Oeltjen of LAD struck out 4 times against SDP on 8/3/2011
John Gaub of CHC had 10 strikeouts against PIT on 8/4/2011
Yohan Flande of COL had 13 strikeouts against WAS on 8/4/2011
David Huff of CLE had 16 strikeouts against TEX on 8/5/2011
Gerardo Parra of ARI robbed 4 hits against LAD on 8/7/2011

TRADE FLURRY: We don’t keep records on this stuff, but the 33 trades since last week have to be a league record…Tampa Bay pulled the trigger 6 times, Houston led the way with 8…20 of the 30 teams in the league made a trade…110 players traded places this week…instead of being a roster dump, the very last trade 4 key contributors. Thanks to Rick Wynne for posting his thoughts on the trade deadline…

NOW NEED TO CLEAR WAIVERS: Any trade from here on out must clear waivers. If you reach a trade, send me the players involved, I’ll put it in the newsletter, and the trade can be nixed if anyone claims the players involved. That means a 2-week turnaround before the players can change rosters.

COMMENTS: Boston, who made 4 moves at the deadline, gained more ground in the AL East…Cleveland and SF stumbled this week, but both held divisional leads…The big push this week came from St.Louis, who went 6-1 and picked up 2 games against Houston, even though the Astros had a winning week…The AL west was 18-9 this week, and the 4th-place team is only 4 games under .500…Oakland, Minnesota, and the Mets are all in last place in their divisions, but all posted winning weeks…Kudos to the Cubs, who are 4 games over reality, even after their tough week.

ROOKIE MENACE: Chris Schwinden of LAA had 20 strikeouts against CLE on 7/26/2011. The 9th place hitter broke up the no-hitter with only Indian hit of the game; no word on whether he stood in the batter’s box to admire his work, but Schwinden was not ejected. Ervin Santana allowed 4 hits the next day.

FEATS AND FAILURES:

Justin Verlander of DET had 11 strikeouts against CWS on 7/25/2011
Fu-Te Ni of BAL had 11 strikeouts against TOR on 7/26/2011
Jason Heyward of ATL robbed 3 hits against PIT on 7/26/2011
Michael Bourn of STL struck out 4 times against HOU on 7/26/2011
Ian Kennedy of SDP had 13 strikeouts against ARI on 7/27/2011
Mike Moustakas of KCR struck out 4 times against BOS on 7/28/2011
Brandon Beachy of ATL had 11 strikeouts against PIT on 7/28/2011
Dee Gordon of LAD struck out 4 times against ARI on 7/29/2011
Derrek Lee of BAL struck out 4 times against NYY on 7/30/2011
Josh Kinney of KCR had 11 strikeouts against CLE on 7/31/2011
Todd Doolittle of FLA had 14 strikeouts against ATL on 7/31/2011